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by Manonita Ratwatte

Why did terrorists attack civilians? It is a deliberate act of evil. It is to provoke a backlash with the hope that America will unleash its military might, and cause similar civilian casualties amongst the innocent with the same cold blooded hatred and reasoning as the terrorists did in DC and NYC.

If we do that, we then further their ultimate cause; which is to drive more and more peace loving people in those nations towards their cause and towards creating more hatred towards America to launch a fanatical holy war driven by hate.

President Bush is right when he says he will go after all nations that harbour terrorists. He was right when he said all terrorist outfits must be brought to justice. However the West (countries such as Canada, Britain and France) must acknowledge that for the longest time they have harboured some terrorist outfits (Tamil Tigers, Khalistani Terrorists, Mujahideen etc. from Canada and Britain, and of course militant IRA factions operating and getting finances from the USA as well), and treated them with kid gloves when they operate in poor third world nations such as Sri Lanka or India.

For the longest time their view was "as long as they were not attacking us the host nations, let them wage war elsewhere". These evil people were not even called terrorists but sympathetically known as "rebels" by western media(particulary the British Media and BBC) when they blew up buildings and kill hundreds of innocent people in places such as Sri Lanka.

A terrorist is a terrorist no matter where they operate. There will have to be a concerted international effort to rein in all terrorists around the world.

US does not have to look too far to see some nations which harbour terrorist organizations in other parts of the world. The US does not have to go as far as Afghanistan to look for some terrorists. They should look North of the border. Canada is one of the worst culprits. One of the world's most evil terrorist organizations is the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) which operates globally, running drugs and guns, and owning shipping fleets. Their largest foreign financial network is based in Canada. Yet it is not a surprise that western intelligence agencies know very little of them because of the very secretive tightly knit organizational structure of these organizations.

Most terrorist organizations run very sophisticated networks with legitimate businesses as fronts, and engage in networks with similar terrorist organizations. They operate in the guise of refugees organizations and raise funds. They trade weapons and information amongst them. They use highly sophisticated communications systems, Global positioning systems and satellite phones to communicate with each other. Most of these technologies are procured in the West through front organizations. They operate in secretive and highly compartmentalized cells to avoid detection. That way, if one or two cells are exposed it will not expose their entire operational network. They carry our "dry runs" and practice their terror tactics to perfection. They do their homework thoroughly for months or even years before they strike. They have a lot of money.

We lack the human intelligence capabilities to track them, and infiltrate them because we have relied heavily on our technologies to spy on them. You cannot bust terrorist rings by simply having faith in technology. It has to be finally done by humans. As we saw with this heinous crime against humanity, we had failed to predict their strategies at all even though we were good at electronic warfare, simply because we did not have ground penetration(infiltrators), and we lacked information about the key players.

Would it be possible that there is nexus between all these terrorist networks? Yes it is quite possible they exchange training methods and date and protect each other. Will it then be quite possible that there are terrorist cells here and in Canada that want to harm the United States as well? Should we not activate intelligence to monitor terrorist cells there to see if there are conduits to the US?

The time has come for the world to realize that a TERRORIST is a TERRORIST where ever they may be or wherever they seek to attack and destabilize nations. For too long, liberal, politically correct policies of some western nations allowed anyone to enter and operate freely from their soil as long as they did their dirty work elsewhere. Well trained terrorists came into these nations in the guise of political refugees or hiding behind legitimate refugees fleeing persecution. They run front organizations, shops and even temples and mosques as rallying points for their evil plans.

The US was the only courageous western nation which banned the Tamil Tigers, while nations like Britain and Canada pusillanimously have allowed them to operate freely and collect funds and weapons and ignore them because as the British so typically and arrogantly say "as long as they do not break our laws". And their liberal western media refer to them as Rebels instead of really calling them for what they are. A terrorist does not become a "Rebel" just because they attack a poor country some place else like Sri Lanka for example and suddenly become a terrorist once they attack us here.

The world has suffered enough. It is so sad that an appalling tragedy beyond comprehension had to occur for the world to open their eyes. Lets hope that justice will prevail finally. Those who liberal apologists who attempt to draw a line between a terrorist that attacks the USA and terrorist that attacks a third world nation such as Sri Lanka are big hypocrites.

All powerful nations should take pride in America, and do what is right. Terrorists of any nation should not be tolerated and not allowed to operate off your soil . Hunt them down and help those poor desperate nations who are fighting them daily to hunt them down as well. America has the resources, courage and the political will do what is right. Hunt the perpetrators down systematically and show to the ordinary people that we are not barbaric and ruthless and bloodthirsty as these terrorists are.

There should not be any vacillating and indecision. The entire peace loving world will applaud an American initiative to eradicate the global spectre of terrorism. This effort to combat TERRORISM cannot have any "ifs and buts" and half measures.

We cannot and should not make exceptions against any terrorist outfit because they are all linked and networked. Go after their funding; Go after their Banking systems; Go after their logistics; Go after their shipping and businesses and resort to tracking and assassinating their leaders without wasting time in bringing them to trial. Go after those who launder their funds. Treat it as it is organized crime and go after them in every possible way. These are not some simpleton madmen conjuring up home made molotov cocktails any more and it is high time we woke up to that reality.

This is a horrible and sad event. Peace loving decent citizens of the entire world will grieve and be with all in America, and support ALL AND ANY MEANS America can use (should use) and to bring justice end this curse.

Please open your eyes to the biggest threat to global security of the post cold war 21st Century. The world has suffered enough. As Japan realized after Pearl Harbour they have just overstepped their limit now.

It is the Western countries who should take the initiative and the responsibility and do what ever that is necessary to fight terrorism in all corners of the world. This means nations like Canada and Britain need to show political courage in clamping down on terrorist outfits within their borders as well.

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